Enterprise Mobility Blogs

Impact of Mobile Banking Applications on Financial Industry

Mobile technology and financial applications are changing the way customers, banks and sellers interact. Both smartphones and tablets show great promise as business tools, and the financial services industry has been one of many to recognize the value in leveraging mobile devices from a business perspective.

According to a study, 21% of mobile users have used mobile banking in the past 12 months and 11% of those who haven’t used mobile banking yet, will do so in next 12 months. Source: Federal Reserve Study 2012.

So, what’s driving usage of mobile banking application? – This graph illustrates the most common use of mobile banking apps.

There are many mobile banking applications available today. Retail banking and brokerage firms such as Bank of America and Fidelity Investments have been using mobile platforms to offer applications that let customers stay up to date on events, check on their portfolio holdings, and even initiate transactions from their mobile devices. Investment management firms have also used the rise of tablet devices as an opportunity to equip their sales forces with updated documentation quickly.

The convergence of mobile and financial industry – There are a number of trends that are encouraging the convergence of the mobile and the financial industry. One is the move towards Digital Wallet, which is an initiative that allows users to have digital money in their mobile device or in the cloud. Another trend comes from mobile banking, which is gaining traction throughout the world. Today, the majority of banks allow customers to use their mobile devices to check limited information related to their banking but this is definitely changing with increasing consumer demand, continuous release of new mobile devices and provision of safe & secure transactions.

Today, over one-third of American adults own a smartphone of some kind. As the awareness for requirement of mobility solution continues to grow among financial industries, we will see new opportunities, for both financial institutions and consumers!